Newburgh gunman gets max sentence in teen's murder

An Orange County judge on Tuesday sentenced Daniel Correa to the maximum sentence in last summer’s murder of a 15-year-old in Newburgh.

Judge Nicholas DeRosa said Correa committed a “heinous crime” when he fired from a moving car on May 6, killing Jeffrey Zachary. In January, a jury convicted Correa of intentional second-degree murder along with felony counts of second-degree criminal possession and tampering with physical evidence. DeRosa ordered Correa to serve 25 years to life in prison for the murder. Lesser sentences on the other charges will run concurrently.

Jeffrey’s mother, Melanie Zachary, read a statement before sentencing. She spoke directly to Correa and asked him to look at the picture of Jeffrey on her T-shirt. She asked him to think of all the pain he’d caused her family and his family, including Correa’s young daughter.

Correa, 22, of Newburgh read an open letter to Melanie Zachary. He said he wasn’t the shooter. During trial, Correa and his lawyer, Ben Greenwald, had claimed the Newburgh leader of the Latin Kings gang forced him into the car and made him a witness to a murder. Correa said Tuesday those who testified against him were liars. The closest he came to an admission of guilt was when he said he’d been hanging out with a bad crowd and he should have called police after Jeffrey was shot.

DeRosa responded with a stinging rebuke, noting a jury had already decided his guilt.

“A drive-by shooting is the most cowardly of actions,” DeRosa told Correa.

Jeffrey’s death was one of seven homicides in 2008 in Newburgh. His brother, Trent Zachary, died three years earlier in another drive-by in Newburgh.